For my language in high school, I asked myself which is more useful to learn: French or German? I chose French somewhat at random, but it turned out to be the best choice by far and has had a lasting positive impact on my life.
Overall, French is more useful than German. More people speak French (and speak it on 5 continents), Germans will speak to you in English more often than not, neither French nor German will help with higher education since English is the default language, and speaking French will open more career opportunities than German. On the other hand, if you want to move and assimilate to Germany, then German is a necessity.
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At a global level, many more people speak French than German
I’ve read many articles and posts that claim German is more widely spoken than French. This is true in Europe, but not globally. In Europe there are about 100 million native German speakers and ~80 million French speakers. In the world, there are roughly 200 million native speakers of German, while there are about 270 million native speakers of French, according to Eurobarometer.
French is an active language on 3 continents and is present on 5 inhabited ones. In Canada, France, and West Africa, French is a part of everyday life for millions of people. In fact, a study that came out around 5 years ago by Nataxis suggested that French will be the most widely spoken language in 2050 due to its presence in Western and North Africa, one of the fastest growing regions in the world.
Africa as a huge emerging market
Africa has gotten a bad rep since the age of imperialism, and in many ways this makes it an undervalued asset. Its GDP growth in 2013 was the worlds fastest at 5.3%, and that growth is expected to continue through 2025. West, Central, East, and South Africa are expected to become one of the most competitive GDPs in the world by 2050. The world bank expects that a majority of African countries will reach “middle income” status in 2025.
In part, this growth is due to improvements in political stability, which ultimately allows private companies to capitalize on the continent’s rich body of resources and improve trade relations. In particular, trade with China made up around 12.5% of African exports, and 4% with India. Improving those trade relations alone would have huge positive impacts on Africa’s economy.
What’s been holding Africa up? Corruption, perpetual warfare, and despotism (regime in which one entity holds all power) are the root causes. A level higher, the biggest functional causes include a lack of infrastructure, loss of self-worth and identity due to colonialism, and foreign aid. Infrastructure in former English and French parts of the continent, namely railways, correlates almost directly to modern prosperity. Without it, many parts of the continent suffer to grow. With imperialism came exploitation and dominance, which brought about a sense of passivity and a loss of communal self-worth. Foreign aid, especially in times of non crisis, simply destroy the local economies and benefit foreign crop producers.
But today, political stability is increasing, which slowly eliminates tribal warfare and despotism. It will also naturally redirect funds to build infrastructure across countries, reconstruct continental and national identities, and prevent the use of foreign aid to encourage domestic production. As shown in the numbers above, Africa is seeing this progress at a very quick rate.
To give you an idea of French’s pervasiveness in Africa, here’s a map of African countries in which French is an official language. But this map is not complete. French is an active language is North African countries such as Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and other former colonies, though it is not official. The official and unofficial presence brings French easily to the forefront of linguistic value on the continent.
German, on the other hand, is spoken only in Namibia.
Career Opportunities
Because of Africa’s quick rate of growth, most economists believe that new and unforeseen opportunities lay on the horizon in the developing markets, and than we will see it materialize in the next 30 years. But Africa isn’t the only place where knowledge of French will get you ahead in your career.
In business, French is critical if you plan to do any work in Europe. If you want to work as a developer on gaming for companies like Ubisoft, French would be a huge advantage. And if you want to be an engineer in any Francophone region or work with multilingual teams, there are more non-English-speaking French engineers than German ones.
Business
French is more useful as a business language for the simple reason that German businessmen and women speak English more often than not. Such is not the case in France, however. This dynamic means that even if you choose to learn German, you may never get to use it. The Germans will almost always be a step ahead. With French, however, you almost certainly would.
It was hard enough getting over the hump in French for me, and only about 20% of French people speak it comfortably.
This is a topic close to my personal experience because the job I have today is an almost direct result of my ability to speak French (I work in business development in francophone Luxembourg). I arrived in Luxembourg on a US-sponsored Fulbright fellowship and transitioned to another role. I went to work for an international, English-speaking company that needed a bilingual English-French business developer.
Computer Science
In terms of coding itself, you don’t need to speak either French or German. All code is written in English. However, learning French or German might help you in the process of understand artificial languages, which are the fundamentals of coding. For example, you may need to learn php is you plan to work for an internet company.
Engineering
The gist of it is that Germans are more reputed for engineering, but learning their language won’t do you much good. All of academic engineering lessons will be in English, and almost any work you do in Germany will allow for English.
On the other hand, working in engineering in France will demand a significant knowledge of the language, mainly in order to communicate and assimilate into your team. It’s, again, a question of French people’s linguistic limitations.
In France, you need French to have a meaningful experience
Since only 20% of French people speak English, you’re facing an uphill battle when it comes to working in France. Even shorter visits and vacations can be difficult without French. Yes, you can get by with English only, as most hotels and tourist attractions will have English guides and staff to help you, but you will miss out on an authentic experience.
Don’t learn German, unless you want to assimilate into German culture
On this flip side, you will almost always find English-speaking Germans. They will be open to converse in English, and you should not struggle with any administrative tasks.
You would need to speak German, however, in order to genuinely assimilate into the culture. English will almost always be available, but speaking it means Germans accommodate you in your culture. To truly become part of their culture, you’ll need to speak the language.
It depends on where you want to live
So, an important question to ask yourself to decide whether to learn French or German is where you want to live in the long run. Learning a language demands at least 1 full year of committed, daily study in a structured format.
It’s not something that you could easily do many times over in a lifetime, especially with other obligations.
So think about the real reason you want to learn a language. Is it to live in Germany? Or France? Is it just to open yourself up to another culture? Is it to boost your career opportunities?
An easy way to think about this is: if you want to live in Germany, then you should learn German. If not, the better choice is almost always German.
German is very difficult
As far as the two languages go, German is much more difficult. French is a highly organized language with predictable tenses and verb patterns. There are indeed a number of exceptions to the rules, but exceptions are an expected part of the process.
German, however, is a beast of a language. You have more subjects, conjugations, tenses, and moods than French, and the rules that go with them are somewhat random.
I remember taking French one for the first time and thinking how easy it was to pick up; the most challenging part was memorization. German 1, on the other hand, was a whole other ballgame. It’s overwhelming, and much more difficult to get started.
The United Nations uses French, not German
The United Nations recognizes French, and not German, as an official operating language. This speaks to French’s influence on the world stage, and how important a powerful international organization views the language. Not only do they see French as important, but they recognize that many French speakers would have a hard time operating in English.